Internet Brain
by andyjamjar
Summary: Samantha J Lithworth has a computer in her mind. She teams up with Loki, the evil God from Asgard and together they reek havoc on S.H.I.E.L.D. Contains Stark/Rogers and Thor/Loki later on so please stick with it though that isn't what it's all about.


Samantha J Lithworth walked down the dark street. The cold air crushed in on her and the muddy water lying on the pavement splashed up her shoes with every step. Sam looked like any normal street kid, an old rucksack hung from her shoulders, her trainers were worn and coated with a thin layer of mud, but appearances aren't everything. If you looked at this teenager closely you would see her eyes were the same green as any circuit-board and the occasional binary digit made a path across her iris.

Soon there were two figures walking the deserted Manhattan alleys. The second was a high-cheekboned, black haired male; his features so different to Sam's small refined ones, with her straight brown hair with its limp greasy appearance. Though the man made no sound and Sam never once looked behind her she seemed aware of his presence and soon she abruptly stopped.

"So you're Loki, I must say you were dressed better in Germany, but when on the run from the Avengers... How did you escape from Asgard? That is where Thor took you, isn't it? I suppose you tricked your brother again, he does get so sentimental." Sam spoke as if she knew the man, though they had never met before. During her little speech she never once turned to look at Loki, but still registered the look of surprise on his face.

"How do you-"

"Security cameras, New York is riddled with them but the mainframe has a very basic firewall, easy to hack. So, Loki, brother of Thor, why are you following a teenage-girl through the dark alleys of Manhattan?" Sam spoke quickly, as speaking a whole train of thought out loud for the world to hear.

"I think you know why I'm here." Loki had regained his calm.

"You want me to help you take over the world and kill the Avengers." Sam guessed confidently.

"Exactly."

"No." Sam answer was short and she started to walk away, but Loki materialised before her, his scepter now comfortably in his hand. Sam seemed unfazed by this, even when he spoke. "I am Loki. I am a God. I am the one with a weapon in my hand, now think before you answer." He pressed the tip of his scepter gently against Sam's throat. She gulped.

"So you stole that back from Thor, nice." She nodded "Now I could create a gas explosion right under your feet before you could do anything with that." Sam's voice was shaking but it by no means lacked conviction. But Loki seemed nonplussed; he walked forward, dropping the scepter from Sam's throat so it stood faithfully by his side.

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure. Now, if you help me, I won't kill you and I can do you a favor."

"What?" Said Sam, now intrigued, though she tried to hide that fact. He moved round Sam so she would have to turn to look directly at him, and said softly:

"I can help you get back at S.H.I.E.L.D." He stepped back and Sam turned to scan his face (possibly literally). She reluctantly held out a hand, which Loki shook heartily.

"They won't stand a chance." The god smiled.

"We're under cyber attack, this is a code red emergency. All agents shut down work-stations immediately." Agent Hill shouted at the S.H.I.E.L.D workers as Fury looked on, worried, though his blank expression didn't show it. Suddenly a message came through to Fury from Tony Stark. Stark's face filled the screen of Fury's personal computer, the only that hadn't been shut down.

"What the hell is going on? Is everything fine at your end? We're under a cyberattack! I've just installed a computer mainframe to control everything in the tower, but someone has got through the firewalls! They're state of the art!" Stark shouted from the screen, Pepper stood, silently worrying, behind him. Fury remained calm:

"We're under an attack too, just follow basic security protocols and -"

"The security protocols have been overwritten, what the hell is-" Stark's face flickered and disappeared, replaced by that of...

"Loki!" Fury exclaimed! Suddenly every monitor and screen had the God's image on, ever though most had been turned off.

"Hello S.H.I.E.L.D! How goes the world protecting? Badly I hope, just calling to say hi, and to warn you, I'm coming. Your world will be mine and soon you will all kneel before me like you were born to -" Loki's voice ran out clear through S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Agent Hill, track the IP address," He paused "And call in the Avengers." His assistant nodded and hurried away.

"Now Fury, you know there's no point, I'm back, and this time I won't leave until you all kneel!" The screens all went blank apart from Fury's, which flickered back to Stark and Pepper. Both were as white as paper.

"Did you see that?" Trembled Pepper.

"Yes," Answered Fury "We're getting the team together."

"Sir," Agent Hill shouted from across the room "You might want to see this." Fury hurried over and looked at the screen his right assistant was pointing at. "The IP address, it's peculiar. You see mostly IP addresses have about ten digits split up into four sections, split by dots. But this one has eight digits and three sections. It almost looks like -"

"A date." Fury finished the sentence.

"Exactly. This doesn't make any sense." Hill said, confused.

"Oh it makes perfect sense," Fury was being cryptic and Hill didn't like it. "Bring up file 15.02.1998."

"That's the number of this IP address sir."

"Yes it is. I'll explain when the Avengers get here." He promised, Hill nodded and hurried away.

Loki laughed. This made Sam stare, what was so funny?

"Oh they're quaking in their boots! That shocked them! Pity they don't have computers in Asgard, I would have loved to see Thor's face. His precious earth is going to burn!"

"Uh-huh." Was Sam's only reply she wasn't looking at the monitor in front of her, that was for Loki, she was looking at her on screen, the one in her head. She watched Fury through his own cameras and the Avengers through other cameras all across the globe. They were all on the move; they'd be at the S.H.I.E.L.D base in a day or so until then see would just watch.

"What are you doing to the desk?" Loki asked, Sam's eye's opened and she looked down.

"I scratch binary digits sometimes, other teens doodle, I calculate, it keeps me calm." Loki nodded in a patronising manor. He found the kid unnerving, she was clearly insane.

"How long till the big meeting?" He asked changing the subject back to business.

"Approximately... fourteen hours twenty-five-and-a-half minutes." Said Sam, using the calculator in her brain.

"Great! All that panic in one place, the fear, oh they'll burn, they'll burn!"

"Well isn't that great." Sam was back to scratching binary digits, barley registering Loki's existence now. That annoyed him greatly.

"People we have a crisis." Nick Fury was addressing five people, all very different, but all very tense. Tony Stark resented the lot of them but was worst around Steve Rogers, the only person in the world who seemed to have the ability to make Stark lose his cool; something had obviously happened between them. Steve kept a straight face and back, a proper soldier who was comfortable making eye contact with all but Stark. Bruce Banner disliked the whole world and it showed a little in his face, but he was shy and sunk down in his chair. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton were the only two enjoying each others company, occasionally making more-than-friendly eye contact, but mostly remaining straight faced and professional. This awkward group of resentful people were earth's best line of defense. _'Oh God!'_ Thought Fury.

"As you all know, Loki is back. What you don't know is that this time he has help, from this girl." An image of Sam flickered onto the screens in front of the Avengers. "Her name is Samantha J Lithworth. Ten years ago, when she was four, she was part of a government experiment. A chip was implanted into her brain that should have meant she could perform the functions of a normal computer neurologically, like use the Internet or a calculator but wither brain. When the test chip was implanted this happened." A video began to play on the screen. It showed a little girl lying on a hospital bed in a room alone. When she woke she begun to scream and clutch her head, she then fell the floor, writhing in pain like a hyperactive snake. Fury paused the clip. "The chip worked, but too well. The girl was screaming because, how do I put this, the whole Internet poured into her mind. Think of all those social networking sites, each status update went through her mind, millions of voices. Samantha went insane. It was soon discovered that any effort to remove the chip could kill the girl so the military compensated her family then distanced themselves. But five years ago Samantha started hacking, the effect was devastating, the girl already had an IQ of one-hundred and sixty-five and now she has constant access to and unstoppable computer. She's been sleeping rough since her parents kicked her out nine years ago and no one can trace her, now it seems she's in league with Loki, they're both as insane as each other. This is, as you may have noticed bad news." Fury's explanation met stunned silence until Stark said:

"So we just have to track down an insane, super-human computer hacker with a computer in her brain and an insane demi-god with inhuman powers and a thirst for revenge." Fury nodded whilst everyone else just stared. After pausing to drink in the reaction he continued. "Let's get to work!"

Sam sat in a dark corner. To any outsider she looked like she was just napping, but Sam was wide-awake. She watched the Avengers plan and prepare themselves, she watched their little meeting and she listened to her own screams as the video of her played on Fury's computer. She also heard thousands of other voices, prattling on inside her head. Sometimes the voices got worse, when she had nothing to distract her they pushed their way inside, and as the Avengers dispersed that's just what happened. She tried to block the never-ending flow of ignorant bile, but it came pushing it's way inside her brain. She tried and tried to block it out but soon Samantha J Lithworth just had to madly clutch her skull and scream and scream and scream.

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!" No one came running; no one cared if she was ok. Loki was the only person nearby and he had got reluctantly used to the sudden out-bursts of the teenager.

Sam regained control went back to watching the Avengers, but her heart still raced, her head still pounded and her breathing was still as uneven as the floor of the small room she was sleeping in. Suddenly her mind snapped. Stark and Rogers were alone in the room she was watching.

"Why do you need to talk to me?" Stark demanded.

"You know why." Rogers answered plainly.

"We kissed ok, it was a mistake." Stark sounded doubtful.

"It didn't feel like one." Replied Rogers. Sam was just watching now. This was big. She could use this.

"Well it was... Wasn't it?" Stark was very unsure now. He took an involuntary step towards Rogers. Suddenly, they were kissing. They lingered for what seemed like an eternity, but soon Stark pulled away; mumbling something about meeting Pepper at some grand opening in Stark tower.

"Oh God! Get a room!" Sam switched the image off and opened her eyes. This was big. This was enormous. This was... Something Loki would need to know. "Eugh" Grunted Sam before she drew in breath and shouted "LOKI!"

"This is it. You remember the plan, right?" Loki was pacing up and down. His footsteps were echoing through the New York alleyway.

"Uh-huh." Replied Sam. She was bored, unfazed by the enormity of the task that awaited her. That annoyed Loki.

_'Could I just kill her?'_ He thought to himself. No, she was too valuable, the key to a massive bomb.

"Ok. This is going to be magnificent! Let's go!"

Sam and Loki stood outside Stark tower. Sam wore a black, scruffy hoodie and trainers with a guitar case slung carelessly over her back. Loki, however, had conformed to the dress code - a quality tuxedo, slicked-back hair and a dapper umbrella held in his right hand.

Sam looked up from underneath her hood and read the banner. 'Unveiling of the world's first complete domestic control system'. Sam smiled. Stark had given them the upper hand, and he didn't even know it.

Sam walked through the large, imposing doors of Stark tower greeted by a polite concierge - who bed her a happy evening - and then a large (not in the buff or tall way) security guard.

"Oi, girl. You're gona have to pull down that hood and empty your bag. In fact, jeans and a hoodie aren't in the dress code!" Sam shifted around on the spot, pretending to feel awkward but smiling beneath her hood. By now, two more security guards had shuffled over, with nothing else to do; the whole situation had started to turn into a scene. In other words, everything was going to plan.

"Come on then. Empty the bag." Ordered the security guard. Sam muttered incoherently and slowly started to open the guitar case, just a Loki confidently strolled over.

"Is my niece causing a disturbance sir?" He spoke calmly.

"Well, sir, firstly she's breaching the dress code, secondly-" The first security guard began his pompous rant, puffing himself up like a balloon, but was interrupted by Loki:

"Muuuuum, really?" Suddenly Loki swung his umbrella round and underneath the guard's chin sending him reeling backwards, arms wind milling. Loki didn't pause for a second, though. He threw the umbrella up and caught it by the opposite end, bringing the hard, wood handle down on the guy's head, knocking him out cold. As this was all going on, the rest of the security faculty had run over, and Sam had emptied the guitar case, taking out Loki's scepter. Sam threw the scepter to Loki, and he threw the umbrella to her. Soon they'd fought off all but one of the security guards and strode into the grand entrance hall.

"There's a security guard coming after us." Loki warned Sam.

"On it." Replied Sam. A few binary digits appeared in her irises, as the full-body metal detector, the final security guard was passing through, exploded. Sam and Loki didn't even flinch.

As Sam and Loki strode onto the makeshift stage at one end of the grand hall, all eyes followed them.

"Kneel! All of you! I said KNEEL!" Bellowed Loki. Most people fell to floor, terrified by the sight of the God and teenager fighting off most of the security guards and then blowing up the last one, yet four people remained standing.

"Why should we kneel to you?" Pepper Potts shouted from the other side of the hall as her three friends agreed.

"Because, Miss Potts," Sam grinned, as Loki materialised behind Pepper "After hacking into the Stark tower mainframe, I have control of the security system, and therefor the state of the art laser system which is integrated into the security protocols." Loki pulled Pepper back as the lasers blinked on, killing all those who had stood up apart from Pepper, who was now being held back, viciously, by Loki.

"Questions?" Asked Sam.

"Now, I suggest you all stay right there." Ordered Loki, smiling sadistically from the other side of the hall. Sam walked slowly but confidently to Loki, and grabbed Pepper, by her hair, to drag the woman out, as binary digits flashed across her irises. Gas started to escape from the pipes as the lasers turned on again, trapping the kneeling people, just as Loki strode out, followed swiftly by Sam, who was dragging the protesting Pepper.

As they walked away from the tower, a final digit scrolled across Sam's iris. She'd switched on a fireplace in the tower, and the instantly the fire met with the gas.

BOOM!

"Oh god." Tony Stark's car had pulled up beside, what had been, Stark tower. Police and curious citizens surrounded the site. Stark jumped out his car, like the seat was on fire, and sprinted to the crowd. He pushed his way through the throng, shouting and cursing until he arrived at the barrier, where a young policewoman met him.

"Please, Mr Stark, will you come with me." She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I... what... what the hell happened?" He stammered, too shocked to shrug her hand off, or to make a snappy remark.

"There was an attack on the tower and an explosion. But sir, Miss Potts, she's been taken." Tony snapped back to reality then and looked the nervous woman straight in the eye.

"What?! Pepper?!"

"Yes. Now I need you to come with me to answer some questions."

Stark spent the next four ours watching his tower explode, Pepper being taken and then Loki's grinning face. He answered question after question.

Yes, he was in a relationship with Miss Potts. Yes, he had been away on business. No he didn't know how the attackers had rigged the explosion (though he did). The questions never ended, one after the other, and on the screen behind the two officers, her watched Pepper being taken and hundreds of people dying over and over.

Eventually he was set free and walked, stunned, out of the police station, not really seeing anything. His mind was running at the speed of a snail and the street in front of him swayed and rippled, like it was being reflected in a pool of water. He was only brought crashing back to earth when his phone began to ring. The spark of hope ignited within him.

"Pepper!" Stark grabbed his phone, but his heart sank when he registered Fury's name.

"Stark. We need you to come in." Fury's voice was urgent.

"Fury, this really isn't the time." Stark answered, voice slurred with exhaustion.

"We know what's happened, that's why we need you, so we can find Loki and stop him." Stark's eye's narrowed, his muscles tensed and he straightened his posture.

"Alright, I'm on my way."

"Well people, we're under attack." Fury was, again, stood in front of The Avengers. "Loki and Samantha Lithworth have hit us where we live, they've made it personal. We don't know their plan, but ours is to find them and deliver justice. Now, we've all been focusing on Loki, we know him and we know he's dangerous, but after close inspection we have concluded Lithworth is much worst. Last time we encountered him, Loki killed eighty people in two days, but Lithworth rigged the explosion at Stark tower meaning she killed double that in seconds." The room was silent. The destroyed Stark was silent; everyone else was trying to hide his or her shock after Fury's speech, apart from Steve Rogers who's eyes were flitting from Stark to the image of Pepper on the screen; his face was as pale as the paper agent Hill was scribbling notes on.

"So I need to find him… them?" Banner broke the awkward silence.

"Get to it." Fury practically barked the order. "Stark, Agent Romanoff and Barton: you're on rotation. I need at least one of you on stand-by at all times – understood?" The team nodded. "I've sent a message to Asgard, Thor's on his way."

"Well somebody better ask him how the hell Loki got free." Only Agent Romanoff laughed at Clint's joke.

"Don't worry, we will." Replied Fury, not missing a beat.

"Wait what about me?" The Captain finally tore his eyes, with their suddenly big-as-the-sun pupils, away from the computer screen.

"You, Captain, are going to collect Thor."

A beam of glowing, bright light, the colour of the Californian sea shot, down and hit the ground with the force of a bullet. From within materialised a big, blonde-haired, muscular man. Captain America leant calmly on his vintage car, he'd seen this before but was by no stretch of the imagination was bored. The task he'd been set took his mind off… off… Stark. So the soldier stood to greet the warrior.

"Ah, greetings Captain. It is good to see you again." Thor held out a huge hand, which the Captain took readily.

"It's good to see you too, but I'm afraid that we need to get moving. Oh, and once we get to base you might have to answer some questions, you know, about how Loki escaped."

"Ah. My father, Odin, anticipated that. Don't worry, I shall answer all your questions." '_But I mustn't give you the truth.' _Thought Thor.

"Well we better get moving." Said Steve Rogers, unaware that the corrosive conflict in his heart was mirrored in Thor's as well.

_'What do I do when Loki and I meet before the Avengers? Why must he torture me? And why must I torture myself?'_

"He's here." Sam's eyes opened and she shouted from her damp corner in the room next to Pepper's. Loki flung the rickety door open dramatically, nearly knocking it off its aging hinges.

"What's happened?" Loki stood proudly before Sam. He had the air of a great king surveying a peasant. Sam stood up slowly, facing the god. This rather ruined what Loki had turned into a dramatic scene. Sam eyed Loki, as if questioning his sanity.

"Traffic cams just picked up two blonde haired males travelling on the highway towards New York State. One of them was Captain America, the other was-"

"Thor." Loki was suddenly deadly serious.

"Good guess." Sam didn't miss the way Thor's name affected Loki and she found it hilarious, stifling a laugh.

"Things are moving fast. Time for the next step." Loki's face practically shone with pride and anticipation. All troubling thoughts of Thor were gone.

"Great. Now, what is that exactly?" Sam had a talent for ruining the moment.

"Kill The Avengers." Loki rang his hands with glee.

"Oh God, Pepper. What the hell am I going to do? I should have been there, I shouldn't have lied, I shouldn't have…" Tony Stark was pacing up and down his room at S.H.E.I.L.D HQ. If you could call it pacing, in his tiny room, it was more turning. He was off duty but he couldn't sleep… or eat… or really do anything. Steve Rogers was out getting Thor; that, at least, was a small mercy. Just thinking about the captain made a small dagger puncher all his insides. '_I love Pepper. I love Pepper. I didn't mean to kiss Rogers, it meant nothing – right?' _He sank onto the bed, screwed up his eyes and hit his head with the palm of his hand, trying to force everything out. It just gave him an aching head.

_Knock! Knock!_

Stark stood up with a groan and opened the door; almost crying out in surprise as, on the other side of the door, was the Captain himself.

"Fury wants to speak to us. Banner has found Loki and Lithworth." Steve Rogers stood upright, kept speech to a minimum and made as little eye contact as possible.

"Yeah, thanks." Stark pushed past him gruffly.

"Stark." Rogers turned and called after him.

"What?" Stark said curtly, challenging him, even though it burnt him up from within.

"Nothing, sorry." The Captain nearly choked as emotion welled up from within.

Banner stood nervously in front of the complete set of Avengers, shuffling the papers in his hands. Thor seemed unaware of the awkwardness, and tension in the room Agent Romanoff and Hawkeye seemed immune to it.

"Ok, um so, basically," Banner begun, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "Loki and Lithworth are in an old house in DC. CCTV cameras nearby caught them through the windows-"

"Is Pepper there?" Stark leaned forward expectantly, begging for the news he craved.

"Well, Miss Potts is there-" Banner's nervousness had only increased with Stark's interruption.

"Yeah, but is she safe?" Stark was relentless.

"Yes, she's fine. All ok, some flesh wounds. But-" Banner kept on going only to be interrupted again:

"Flesh wounds? What have they done to her? I'll skin them alive, I promise!"

"Shut up Stark." The Captain shouted from the other side of the table, eyes blazing. "Not everything is about you and your _girlfriend_! Banner was just about to say something."

"Don't you start Rogers, this isn't your business." Both Stark and Rogers were standing, challenging each other from opposite sides of the circular table. Banner was still standing up whilst Clint and Romanoff stared dumbfounded and Thor just looked round confused.

"Ehem." Banner cleared his throat, saving everyone "As I was saying. I think we should be careful. It looks like they've been there for a while. I think we can only see them because Lithworth wants us to see them. I think they have a plan, we don't want to play right into their hands."

"If it means getting Pepper back, I don't mind playing into fifty pairs of hands!" Remarked Stark.

"Oh because you're _so _in love!" Rogers shot back sarcastically.

"Oh shut up, both of you!" Barked Romanoff "Take your childish squabbles outside or deal with them like adults, we've got work to do!" She looked them both up and down like they she was their mum and they were two kids coming home dirty after a furious fight.

"Petty humans." Chuckled Thor.

"I don't know what you're laughing about, we wouldn't be in this mess if you'd done your job properly!" Snapped Romanoff, turning her murderous gaze on the God.

"You know nothing." Thor retoured the disgusted stare.

"Enlighten us." Clint stood up, taking his place next to Romanoff.

"Guys we should get moving." It was, again, Banner who broke the tension.

"Yeah, lets suit up." Nodded Steve Rogers as the last disdainful glances were exchanged. And the Avengers walked off.

"You ready?" Loki glanced over to Sam. He was conscious of a slight twitch in her left eye.

"Yeah. I'm… just… _fine!_" Sam said the words as if they hurt. She was clenching and unclenching her right hand whilst scratching binary digits into the wall beside her with her left. Loki didn't know if she was feeling pain, he didn't understand anything about this kid, apart from the fact that she wasn't stable; that was for sure.

"Ok, well don't mess this up."

"Or you'll do what? Kill me? Who cares? Not me, not anyone!" Sam shouted at Loki with such ferocity that he took a step back.

"Calm down, if you mess this up S.H.E.I.L.D will win. I don't want that and I know you don't want that, so calm down." Loki tried to be reassuring, not that he had much practice. Sam regained her composure and shook her head, as if she was trying to shake something out. This charade was worrying Loki, he didn't need the child breaking down mid-fight.

"Ready?" Black Widow addressed all the Avengers. Everyone nodded faces displaying complete focus. "Ok, let's move."

The door wasn't kicked down; Tony Stark burned it to ash.

"Right, Stark, Captain you move down there, try to find Miss Potts." Romanoff was pulling the shots. "Clint, you're with me we'll look for Pepper as well. Thor you're on your own, try to find Loki. Banner stay here, we'll call you if we need you." Black Widow led the team and no one argued with her, they all did as she instructed.

Black Widow and Clint moved off; Sam saw them through her cameras. She was crouching Pepper's room, desperately trying to block out the voices that were trying to force their way into her mind. They were strong today, loud. Pepper saw her face contort as with pain mixed with concentration mixed with defiance mixed with desperation. She was a girl on the edge, and Pepper didn't know if that was an advantage or a disadvantage.

Sam franticly tried to concentrate as she saw Black Widow and Hawkeye enter her corridor. She switched the lasers on.

Stark and Rogers moved through the house in silence, trying to hear anything that would lead them to Pepper. They were tense they knew what Loki could do, but worst, they weren't sure whether they knew the extent of what Lithworth could do. They turned and scanned and listened, and then:

"Help me! Oh god, please help me! Tony, are you there? Help me!" Pepper's voice ran clear through the house and Stark turned to its source: a rickety little door… that he promptly incinerated. The two men ran through the smoke and into the room. There at the other side was a speaker.

_Bang! _

A steel shutter sealed the entrance behind them. Iron Man and Captain America were mice in Samantha J Lithworth's cleverly designed trap.

_Thump! _Romanoff and Clint hit the floor. They were surrounded by lasers; trapped. Sam laughed at them. This unnerved Pepper as Sam's screen was, as usual, in her mind.

"What are you laughing at?" Pepper plucked up the courage to speak.

"The failure of others." Sam snapped back

"What do we do?" Romanoff turned her head so she could see Clint.

"I don't think we can do anything. Even if we get passed the random lasers there's no way we can get past those." He nods to a neat wall of horizontal, red lasers.

"Try to call the rest of the team." Clint presses his earpiece.

"Clint to Avengers." Static. "Dam. She's cut off the signal."

"That's impossible." Replies Romanoff.

"Not for little miss Lithworth." Snaps back Clint, annoyed at the way this whole mission has turned out.

"You think they're coming, don't you?" Sam turns to Pepper, malice burning in her eyes.

"They'll always come." Pepper replies.

"Hum. Bet your boyfriend is on his way right now. Lets she shall we."

Thor wielded his hammer, looking down each decrepit corridor, looking for any sign of Loki; his head moving constantly.

"Brother dear. Over here." There was Loki, standing in an open doorway, scepter in hand. Thor charged at him, ready to smash his brains in for what he'd done to him. But suddenly Loki flickered and disappeared and Thor crashed through the doorway, sprawling out on the floor like a baby horse that has failed at trying to walk. Loki casually stepped through the door a metal shutter sealing the doorway behind him.

"Shall we begin?"

Sam turned a computer screen to Pepper and sent the image in her mind to it. Suddenly Stark and Rogers appeared before Pepper. They both looked angry and agitated, two trapped animals on the brink of an all-out fight.

"Well done Stark, truly, only you could get us into a mess this big!" Rogers was the first to turn.

"Don't blame this on me, we were meant to be a team!" Snarled Stark.

"Oh so that word _is_ in your vocabulary!"

"Cut the sarcastic crap Rogers!" Shouted Stark. "Maybe if you hadn't kissed me we I would have been able to work with you!" Pepper took a sharp intake of breath, like she'd just punched. Sam just grinned '_The best is yet to come!'_ She thought.

"Oh I kissed you now!" Barked Rogers as he involuntarily stepped forward; anger was rushing through him. "And there was me thinking we both kissed each other!"

"Don't pin this on me. Why would I kiss you? I have Pepper." Stark's reply was fast, and it denied everything inside his heart.

"Quick question, if you have Pepper, why are we on this god-damn rescue mission?" Rogers knew he'd hit a nerve, but it didn't fell like victory, just pain.

"You arrogant, out-of-date, piece of –" And they were kissing. Rogers pulled away.

"Is this love?" He asked.

"I think so." Replied Stark, and they were kissing again.

Sam turned the screen off and turned to Pepper, victory shining from her face. But it soon died as she saw Pepper's face.

Banner was alone, he'd made a pact with himself to wait for an hour before going in, but the tension was killing him. He knew perfectly well what Loki and Lithworth were capable of and he didn't want to leave the rest of the team to they're mercy, the two were dangerous.

"Fifteen minutes." He promised himself as the clock ticked away.

"Begin what?" Thor stood up to face Loki.

"To kill you all." Replied Loki with an aspect of 'duh' in his voice.

"You're a traitor Loki, I thought you'd changed when we, we –" His voice trailed off with pain. A flicker of something passed across Loki's eyes. Emotion?

"You fall for such simple tricks brother." But there was a shake in Loki's voice, which Thor leapt upon. "I do not love you Thor, I never did. It was all just a trick to escape, I never meant any of it, none of it. None. Of. It!" Those words killed half of Thor but the other half of him clung onto a slight tremor in Loki's voice.

"I didn't feel like it when we were kissing." Thor moved forward powerfully. "Don't do this to me and yourself, I given up my home for you!" Loki seemed to visibly weaken with these words.

"What do you mean? What do you mean about Asgard?" Trembled Loki.

"I've been banished, Odin found out about us." Thor knew he was forcing the inner Loki to gradually come out.

"No. Where will you go?" Dangerous Loki was gone, but Thor was well aware that with the wrong words he could bring him back all too soon.

"You were going to kill me just a moment ago." Thor raised his eyebrows.

"Well I was hoping Lithworth would do it for me." They both laughed.

"This isn't just an act is it?" Thor took a step back.

"No. I'll prove it, break the scepter." Loki looked serious, honest and happy all at the same time. So Thor split the weapon with his hammer, they kissed and they laughed. Then Loki pulled away for the last time.

"Thor, what about Jane?"

"Excuse my foul human language, but f**k Jane." Said Thor, quite simply. Loki grinned and quickly replied:

"But brother, you already have!"

"What do we do?" Clint was panicked.

"Wait. We just have to wait for the rest of them to get back." Romanoff wasn't talking to Clint, she was reassuring herself.

"What if they don't come back or what if Loki gets here first? We're fish in a barrel Natasha." Clint was paper-pale.

"We just have to hope." She grabbed Clint's hand "And it's not Loki we should be worried about, it's Lithworth."

Sam gawped. Pepper was smiling. Smiling!

"Why are you smiling? That was your boyfriend, kissing someone else!" Pepper just smiled.

"They're so perfect!" She whispered.

"What?!" Shouted Sam. Pepper should feel betrayed, heart-broken, alone; all Sam's daily emotions. She stood, marched to the end of the room and back, finally pulling Pepper up by her hair, pulling a knife out and holding it to her throat. "What did you say?!"

"It makes sense, they were practically made to be together!" Smiled Pepper.

"Why aren't you angry? Tell me! Why?"

Banner glanced at his watch, fifteen minutes was up. The hulk was coming. He laughed giddily.

Clint and Natasha heard loud footsteps running towards them.

"Banner!" Laughed Romanoff. The hulk came bounding towards them but came to an abrupt halt when he saw the lasers.

"Find Lithworth!" Shouted Clint "Make her take the lasers down." The hulk just nodded and ran in the opposite direction, the way that Stark and the captain had gone.

"Help! She's insane!" Shouted Pepper at the top of her voice. Sam quickly silenced her with a movement of the knife but hulk had heard and the metal door was soon bashed in, its reminents flying to the back of the room.

"Take down lasers." Grunted the hulk.

"Why should I listen to you?" Replied Sam, dropping Pepper.

"Me hulk, me smash!" He demonstrated this by punching a hole through the walls to his left and right, reveling two kissing couples, both quite shocked. A small, submissive digit flashed across Lithworth's iris. Hulk grunted his approval as Hawkeye and Black Widow jogged into the room.

Thor managed to convince the reluctant Avengers that Loki would cause no more trouble.

"We shall live together, I shall make sure he causes no more suffering." Loki nodded along to this whilst Clint muttered something about Thor not being very good about this in the past. After a quick explanation from Stark to Pepper, which went better than expected, they were on their way. Thor and Captain America took turns to restrain Sam whilst chatting to the rest of the Avengers near the front with Loki taking up the rear alone. They walked through the dilapidated house, finally finding the corridor where Black Widow and Hawkeye had been trapped only hours before.

Thor noticed the binary digit to late. He saw it pass along Sam's iris, slowly connected the dots and turned just in time to see the lasers turn on around Loki, killing him instantly. Thor couldn't run to Loki, he'd only meet his death at the lasers too so he turned to Sam a murderous rage blazing in his eyes, which only grew stronger as he saw the girl laugh unashamedly. He raised his hammer above his head ready to bring it down on the evil witch but stopped when Banner got in his way.

"I know all about rage Thor, so trust me, you will regret this."

"Have do you know?" Asked Thor tears streaming down his face. "You didn't love Loki! I loved Loki and she killed him, in cold blood!"

"Exactly! Cold blood freezes you for life, you don't want to live with guilt Thor, let her, it's more then she deserves!" Thor lowered his hammer, sunk to the ground and cried. Loki was gone and he was alone.


End file.
